


Off The Table

by BattleshipGarcy



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Fox Mulder Angst, Gen, POV Fox Mulder, Redux II, season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:53:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25721638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BattleshipGarcy/pseuds/BattleshipGarcy
Summary: While sitting outside Scully's hospital room, Mulder contemplates if he should join the Cancer Man.
Kudos: 11





	Off The Table

**Author's Note:**

> No beta/editor used - mistakes/typos are my own.
> 
> I've been rewatching some of my X-Files favorite episodes lately, and the other night I had the Gethsemane trilogy on and the end of "Redux II" spoke to me. As a result, I sat down and wrote this one out. I hope you like it.

That man.

The Cancer Man.

He gave me the cure for Scully’s cancer.

He brought Samantha to me.

I have no reason to doubt that his offer to join him was sincere.

I sit alone in the hallway of Trinity Hospital, having turned down Bill’s invitation to be with the family to be with Scully. I know that she and her mother would want me in there with them, but Bill’s invitation was not sincere.

I lean forward and stare at my hands. The guilt that I still carry with regard to Scully’s cancer – her abduction three years ago, the pain all of this has caused her family – it all weighs heavily on my heart. I rest my forehead in the palms of my hands and sigh.

Does the Cancer Man’s offer still stand? I wonder.

Without hesitation, I had shot down his offer, but now I’m not so sure.

Of course, the truth is important, but is it worth the cost of my soul?

Am I willing to give up my own sense of integrity to join him? To gain access to the answers which I have sought for so long? To find out the truth about extraterrestrial life? To find out for certain what happened to Samantha all those years ago?

If selling my soul to the Devil can give me these things, then perhaps it is worth it.

Now that Scully’s life has been saved, my focus must return to my sister. She has always been the driving force of my work at the FBI.

The only reason I have come this far.

Was the woman I spoke with at the diner really Samantha?

I want to believe that it was her.

I want to believe that she is happy living her, quote-unquote, other life.

I want to believe that she has children who love her, her own family.

If it was her then... then I’ve missed out on so much. It hurts that I’m not a part of her life and that her children do not know their Uncle Fox.

If I join _him_ … if I join the Cancer Man… if I quit the FBI and join _them_ then… then I can know everything. I would be on the inside. I’d have access to the truth about Roswell, about little green men, what happened to Agent Scully when she was abducted and how it caused her cancer, the black oil I was infected with in Tunguska… I could find out the truth behind the memories I have of the night Samantha was abducted – if they were real or if they were manufactured and distributed to me by the group the Cancer Man has asked me to join. And most importantly, if I joined, I could find a way to stop the men responsible for all of this.

I could use the Cancer Man to get my sister back.

I could be a part of her life again.

And that is something that I want more than anything else.

But can the Cancer Man be trusted?

No.

He cannot.

Would having Samantha back make it worth the risk?

Yes.

Yes, it would.

I look up and see Skinner so I gesture for him to sit next to me and he does.

“The Smoking Man’s dead,” he says.

“How?”

“Shot through his window.” Skinner hands me a blood-splattered photo of me and Samantha then continues to explain what happened. “Forensics found it at the scene. We’re assuming it’s his blood.”

“Assuming?” I ask, not entirely surprised.

“Well… no body was found, but there was too much blood loss for anyone to have survived,” Skinner pauses to change the subject, showing signs of appreciation that I hadn’t been convinced to name him as the man inside the FBI. “This afternoon when you named Blevins… how did you know?”

“I didn’t. I just guessed.”

That isn’t the answer Skinner was looking for, but it’s the truth.

“Well, it was a hell of a guess. Blevins had been on payroll for four years to a biotechnology company called Roush, which is somehow connected to all this.”

“I’m sure whatever connections there were, they’re being erased right now.” I say, committing the name Roush to memory.

“They’re cleaning up, taking everything away,” he tells me.

“Not everything.” I smile. “Scully’s cancer’s gone into remission.”

Skinner’s eyes light up, “That’s unbelievable news,” he says.

“It’s the best news I could have ever heard.”

“What turned it around?” Skinner asks.

“I don’t know,” I say, not wanting to tell him that the Cancer Man played a role in saving Agent Scully’s life before his assumed death. “I don’t think we’ll ever know.”

“Can I see her?”

“Yeah, she’s in there with her family right now, but I’m sure she’d love to see you.” I tell him, hiding my heartache of not being in there with her after everything she and I have been through this year.

(I almost lost her.)

I watch as Skinner stands up and enters Scully’s hospital room.

The door closes quietly behind him and I turn my attention back to the photo of me and Samantha.

If the Cancer Man is dead then his offer for me to join him is most certainly off the table.

My sister is once again out of my reach.

Disappeared.

Tears sting my eyes.

And here, alone in the hallway…

I cry.


End file.
